All News

James L. Ferguson Professor of HistoryHistory Maurice Isserman contributed an essay titled"Will the Left Ever Learn to Communicate Across Generations" to the Chronicle of Higher Education (6/20/08). It is featured in The Chronicle Review in the special section "The Surprising Legacies of the 60s." In the piece, Isserman, a preeminent historian of the American left and expert on reform and radical movements, recounts the meeting between social activist Michael Harrington with then 20-year-old student Tom Hayden. Harrington unsuccessfully tried to recruit Hayden into the Young People's Socialist League, the youth affiliate of the Socialist Party, of which Harrington was a leader. Hayden went on to write the Port Huron Statement, the founding document of Students for a Democratic Society.

Many disciplines contain two seemingly opposed halves. Physics has its quantum theory and general relativity. Chemistry can be organic and inorganic. Late night television offers either David Letterman or Jay Leno. Similarly, in a Levitt Center summer research project, Andrew Miller '10 is working with Professor Christophre Georges on a computer program for a simplified economy that accurately simulates both microeconomic and macroeconomic phenomena. Microeconomics is the study of individual market behavior, while macroeconomics is concerned with a broader picture of the economy as a whole. As Miller explains, the program "shows that realistic macroeconomic fluctuations can be generated from idiosyncratic, microeconomic interactions between firms and workers." In other words, the program has produced movements in things such as the interest rate by starting with the production and trade of individual companies as a building block.

Allen Mellen '58, who celebrated his 50th reunion on the Hill two weekends ago, has posted an essay about his deeply personal experience of Reunions '08 on his blog "Morningsider."

Bryden Considine '08 and Assistant Professor of Biology Mike McCormick presented their research at the national meeting of the American Society of Microbiology in Boston, June 1-5. Considine and McCormick presented a poster describing a novel technique they developed to search for biologically produced compounds that permit iron-reducing bacteria to respire iron oxides solids that are far from the bacteria.  Support for this project was provided by the U.S. Department of Energy.

Professor of Biology Ernest Williams will lead a walk through the Utica Marsh as part of the Utica Monday Nite Walks & Talks Series on Monday, June 16, beginning at 6:30 p.m. The walk is titled "Observing Nature at the Utica Marsh." Williams also gave a presentation on monarch butterfly migration at the Visitor Center of the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge on June 15. His talk was part of its 5th annual Wildflowers and Wine Festival. Finally, on Thursday, June 19, he will speak to all the Clinton third grade classes about butterflies.

Benjamin Van Arnam '09 (Waterford, CT) is spending his summer investigating the ligand binding interactions of galectin-1, a protein involved in tumor progression. (A ligand is a substance that is able to bind to and form a complex with a biomolecule, like a protein.) Arnam hopes that his research may assist in the future development of better tumor growth inhibitors. Building upon the research done by Jodi Raymond '08 for her senior thesis, Van Arnam is synthesizing several different carbohydrate molecules and testing to see how well they bind to and inhibit galectin-1. His project is being conducted under the supervision of Assistant Professor of Chemistry Nicole Snyder. 

On Friday June 6, Vice Chairman of GE, President and CEO of GE Infrastructure, and Hamilton trustee John Rice '78 delivered the Reunions '08 keynote address to an audience of Hamilton alumni in the College Chapel.

Run for the Fallen, the 4,113-mile cross-country relay run created by Hamilton alumnus Jon Bellona '03, is featured in an Associated Press article on the eve of the event's start date and will be covered by CNN on June 14 at noon. Bellona organized the run in honor of Michael Cleary '03, his Hamilton roommate who was killed in Iraq, and all of the soldiers who have lost their lives in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Steve Wulf '72, an executive editor at ESPN The Magazine, has published a review of Mark Bowden's latest book The Best Game Ever: The Birth of the Modern NFL in the June 10, 2008 issue of the Wall Street Journal. The review also appears on the Journal's official website.

Anne E. Lacsamana, assistant professor of women's studies, presented a paper titled "Empire on Trial: The Subic Rape Case and the Struggle for Philippine Women's Liberation" at the annual "How Class Works Works" conference held June 5-8 at SUNY-Stony Brook. Her paper examines the 2005 gang rape of a Filipino woman by four U.S. Marines. The Subic Rape Case, as it is widely known, is exceptional because it marks the first time a member of the U.S. military had ever been tried, convicted, and sentenced on Philippine soil. Although the case is currently under appeal, Lacsamana argues that the landmark verdict is the result of decades of organizing around militarized violence by members of the multi-sectoral Philippine nationalist feminist movement.